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Sparkchaser went to Kazakhstan. If you care, click here.
- Thread starter sparkchaser
- Start date
65%+ are ethnic Kazakhs, so they look "Asiatic" for the most part.
The rest are Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, and Koreans that ended up there willingly or unwillingly after it became part of the Soviet Union. Almost all of the Germans that were exiled there returned to Germany after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Random pic of a fruit seller at a train station. She had these amazing green eyes but my phone takes shitty pics so you can't see how amazing they were.
That is indeed Lenin in the mural.
I avoided the squat toilet experience for the longest time but a man can only hold it for so long. It wasn't horrible. Just different. Very, very, very different.
protip: always bring along your own toilet paper. Hand sanitizer and wet wipes are a good idea too.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
Uhm, i don't know if this is appropriate, but aren't squat toilets available in the west too? Maybe just very, very, very uncommon? Now that I think of it I've never seen a squat toilet whenever I travel, well, west.
Anyway, I've always loved your pictorials. What nuclear plant was in the area?
Anyway, I've always loved your pictorials. What nuclear plant was in the area?
I have never seen one in the West. They probably have them in Ukraine, Latvia, etc. but I have not seen one personally. I would venture a guess that any squat toilets in the West are for personal use and you wouldn't find them associated with a restaurant or train station.
Kazakhstan is a nuclear free zone. When they became independent from the Soviet Union, one of the first things they did was get rid of the nuclear weapons the Russians left behind. They also got rid of all the enriched uranium they had. In both cases, the United States assisted with their removal.
Kazakhstan is a nuclear free zone. When they became independent from the Soviet Union, one of the first things they did was get rid of the nuclear weapons the Russians left behind. They also got rid of all the enriched uranium they had. In both cases, the United States assisted with their removal.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
Usually squats are mixed in with seats here and countries in the vicinity of 'here'. Ratio of seats to squats are higher, but they are quite common.
On the last day of the trip, my fixer told me: "OK, now I can tell you this. Last year three people drowned in outhouses. Well in the same one. One person fell in and the two people tried to help him out and all three drowned."
My reaction:
My reaction:
beer good
Well-Known Member
My grandfather once told me of the time when he was a kid and his older brothers locked him in the outhouse and he had to get out through the... ahem... service exit. My reaction at the time was "Cool!" Then he explained that they didn't have showers back then either, and...
Ugh.
canuck
Active Member
Hi Sparkchaser: Was trying to find the location in Colin Thubron's book. Shadow of the Silk Road, where he came upon a race of people on his travels who had bright red hair and green eyes. I looked up the map of the Silk Road and I think his travels probably took him quite a ways south of Kazakhtan so you probably wouldn't have encountered them. Seems like all along the route there was quite a mix of different races. Couldn't pinpoint the name of the place - would have to trawl through the whole book again to find it. What was it about Kazakhstan that interested you in going there?
I forgot to say that when I mentioned to my fixer about the woman with the green eyes, she told me that some Kazakhs have red hair and green or grey eyes. I didn't run into any of them.
My main interest in Kazakhstan was seeing the Aral Sea and the ship graveyards. Everything else was a bonus.
Speaking of which, the day after we saw the dam we went to the ship graveyard and to see the current shoreline.
This used to be the sea floor.
See all the gray blobs? That would be dust on my sensor. I didn't notice it until I returned home. I thought I was being really careful when I switched lenses. Let those two images serve as a warning to others about the perils of shooting in a dusty and windy environment.
We drove for a few hours and eventually we reached the ship graveyard – places of “deep water” where ships were trapped by the receding water and not long thereafter, abandoned. Scavengers were kind enough to leave behind a few parts to remind you ships once stood here. Better than nothing, eh?
That is not water you see off in the distance.
My main interest in Kazakhstan was seeing the Aral Sea and the ship graveyards. Everything else was a bonus.
Speaking of which, the day after we saw the dam we went to the ship graveyard and to see the current shoreline.
This used to be the sea floor.
See all the gray blobs? That would be dust on my sensor. I didn't notice it until I returned home. I thought I was being really careful when I switched lenses. Let those two images serve as a warning to others about the perils of shooting in a dusty and windy environment.
We drove for a few hours and eventually we reached the ship graveyard – places of “deep water” where ships were trapped by the receding water and not long thereafter, abandoned. Scavengers were kind enough to leave behind a few parts to remind you ships once stood here. Better than nothing, eh?
That is not water you see off in the distance.
I kinda like this “art piece” and I hope it doesn’t get torn down by people cashing in on scrap metal.
This ship graveyard that the driver took us to was a new one to my fixer. The driver told us that these were the last ships on the Kazakhstan side that he knew of.
We got back into our SUV and were now off to see the current shoreline of the sea.
Today from Aralsk, the former fishing capital of the Aral Sea, it takes 90 minutes to drive here.
The shoreline smelled like the shoreline at a marsh but we saw several frogs so I guess that means the water quality is good enough.
When we got back into town, we had the driver drop us off at the regional museum. The museum gives a history of the area. It also charges foreigners more, but entry was still very inexpensive. We did a walk through, learned about the geology, ecology, and history of the area. When we finished, the curator/owner asked if we had any questions. His father had created the museum and he had taken it over. He told us about what it was like when the sea was still around. The weather was much milder than it is now, and the fish plentiful and highly desirable. He said that the Dutch introduced flounder to the sea and that the Aral Sea’s salinity made the flounder’s flesh one of the best tasting flounder in the world (I have no idea if that is true but it does make for a nice story). No photography was allowed in the museum, so no pictures.
While in Aralsk, I discovered an interesting tidbit about the Aral Sea. Kazakh Mama (or was it Kazakh Grandma) said that there is a Kazakh legend that says that the shores of the Aral Sea receded once before and that the second time the shores recede, the sea would not return. Well, the receding shoreline has uncovered the remains of two or three (I cannot remember which it is, it may have been only one) 13-14th Century settlements. So the Aral Sea wasn’t always as large as it was during recorded history. Marina asked the museum curator about these discoveries and aside from knowing their general location, he didn’t know details. Ever since hearing about these ancient settlements, I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what climatic event might have led to the Aral Sea growing and engulfing them.
Across from the museum was a yurt. We went to check it out and inside we were offered a variety of traditional food and drink of the Kazakhs. It was also cooler in the yurt.
Kumis: fermented mare’s milk. It was thin like skim milk, sour, and very strong tasting. I didn’t really like it but I drank all that was poured for me.
Shubat: fermented camel’s milk. This was thicker, almost like kefir. It was much milder tasting. Slightly sour and a little bit sweet. It was much better than the kumis. Shubat is what you see in the photo.
A salty cheese made from cow’s milk. It was very salty and had a something of a gamey taste to it. Not really to my tastes.
Qurut. A kind of dried cheese that is more like bread than cheese. It is made from drained sour milk or yogurt with salt added. It is then molded into shape and dried. It was very hard, very dry and very salty. Again, not to my tastes.
This ship graveyard that the driver took us to was a new one to my fixer. The driver told us that these were the last ships on the Kazakhstan side that he knew of.
We got back into our SUV and were now off to see the current shoreline of the sea.
Today from Aralsk, the former fishing capital of the Aral Sea, it takes 90 minutes to drive here.
The shoreline smelled like the shoreline at a marsh but we saw several frogs so I guess that means the water quality is good enough.
When we got back into town, we had the driver drop us off at the regional museum. The museum gives a history of the area. It also charges foreigners more, but entry was still very inexpensive. We did a walk through, learned about the geology, ecology, and history of the area. When we finished, the curator/owner asked if we had any questions. His father had created the museum and he had taken it over. He told us about what it was like when the sea was still around. The weather was much milder than it is now, and the fish plentiful and highly desirable. He said that the Dutch introduced flounder to the sea and that the Aral Sea’s salinity made the flounder’s flesh one of the best tasting flounder in the world (I have no idea if that is true but it does make for a nice story). No photography was allowed in the museum, so no pictures.
While in Aralsk, I discovered an interesting tidbit about the Aral Sea. Kazakh Mama (or was it Kazakh Grandma) said that there is a Kazakh legend that says that the shores of the Aral Sea receded once before and that the second time the shores recede, the sea would not return. Well, the receding shoreline has uncovered the remains of two or three (I cannot remember which it is, it may have been only one) 13-14th Century settlements. So the Aral Sea wasn’t always as large as it was during recorded history. Marina asked the museum curator about these discoveries and aside from knowing their general location, he didn’t know details. Ever since hearing about these ancient settlements, I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what climatic event might have led to the Aral Sea growing and engulfing them.
Across from the museum was a yurt. We went to check it out and inside we were offered a variety of traditional food and drink of the Kazakhs. It was also cooler in the yurt.
Kumis: fermented mare’s milk. It was thin like skim milk, sour, and very strong tasting. I didn’t really like it but I drank all that was poured for me.
Shubat: fermented camel’s milk. This was thicker, almost like kefir. It was much milder tasting. Slightly sour and a little bit sweet. It was much better than the kumis. Shubat is what you see in the photo.
A salty cheese made from cow’s milk. It was very salty and had a something of a gamey taste to it. Not really to my tastes.
Qurut. A kind of dried cheese that is more like bread than cheese. It is made from drained sour milk or yogurt with salt added. It is then molded into shape and dried. It was very hard, very dry and very salty. Again, not to my tastes.
Two interesting statues in Aralsk:
I don’t know if this is a Monument to or a Memorial for the fishery and fishermen of Aralsk.
This statue of a Kazakh mother and baby says something like “heroes are born from mothers” or something like that.
That pretty much finished our time in Aralsk. The next day we would get back on the train and return to Almaty to catch a train to Semey.
I don’t know if this is a Monument to or a Memorial for the fishery and fishermen of Aralsk.
This statue of a Kazakh mother and baby says something like “heroes are born from mothers” or something like that.
That pretty much finished our time in Aralsk. The next day we would get back on the train and return to Almaty to catch a train to Semey.